CHAPTER VI
BY THE SKIN OF THEIR TEETH
Once settled down in the taxi Perk felt much better. He had been castingsuspicious glances this way and that, eying a number of parties, asthough he more than half anticipated the slick newspaper man might behanging around the Grady in some clever disguise, bent on tracking themto the aviation field.
"Huh! kinder guess--ev'rything's okay with us naow--glad Jack didn'thear me asayin' that forbidden word, er he'd be kickin' agin. Tarnelshame haow a life-long habit do stick to a guy like glue--didn't realizehaow things keep acomin' an' agoin' year after year, when yeou git'customed to doin' the same."
Perk was muttering this to himself half under his breath as the taxitook off, and immediately headed almost straight toward the quarterwhere the fast growing Candler Field lay outside the thickly populatedpart of Atlanta.
He was just about to thrust his head out of the open upper part of thedoor on the left side when Jack jerked him violently back.
"Hey! what in thunder--"
"Shut up! and lie back!" hissed the other, almost savagely.
"Gosh-a-mighty! was _he_ hangin' 'raound after all?" gasped the startledPerk, who could think of but one reason for the other treating him sounceremoniously.
Jack had turned, and was trying to see through the dimmed glass--he evenrubbed it hastily with his hand as if to better the chances of anobservation; but as they whirled around a corner gave it up as next touseless.
"It was _that boy_ all right, and making straight for the hotel in thebargain; which proves he'd located our layout okay," he explained to theexcited Perk.
"Doant tell me he done spotted us, partner?"
"I don't just know," came back the answer, hesitatingly. "I thought I'dyanked you back before he looked our way; but as sure as anything hecame to a full stop, and stared after our taxi. For all we know he maybe jumping for some kind of conveyance to follow at our heels."
"Hot-diggetty-dig! but things shore _air_ gettin' some int'restin' like,I'd say, if yeou asked me, boy! An' even if he keeps on agoin' to theGrady the night clerk'll tell him as haow we done kicked aout. Kinderwish we was a zoomin' long on aour course, an' givin' Jimmy the horselaugh. Caint yeou git the shover to speed her along a little, ole hoss?"
"We're already hitting up the pace as far as safety would advise," Jacktold him, as they both swayed over to one side, with another cornerbeing taken on the jump. "It'd spill the beans if we had any sort ofaccident on the way to the ship; better let well enough alone, partner."
"Huh! the best speed a rackabones o' a taxi kin make seems like crawlin'to any airman used to a hundred miles an hour, an' heaps more'n that,"grumbled the never satisfied Perk; but just the same it might be noticedthat Jack did not attempt to urge the chauffeur to increase their speedat the risk of some disaster, such as skidding, when turning a sharpcorner.
On the way Perk amused himself by taking various peeps from the rear,gluing his eye to the dingy glass. Since he raised no alarm it might betaken for granted he had made no discovery worth mentioning; and in thismanner they presently arrived at the flying field, which they foundfully illuminated, as though some ship was about to land, or anothertake off.
This suited them exactly, as it would be of considerable help inbringing about their own departure.
Jumping out Jack paid the driver, and after picking up their bags theyhastened in the direction of the hangar in which they had been assuredtheir ship was to be placed.
A new field service motor truck was moving past them, evidently bent onservicing some plane about to depart east, west, north or south; whichPerk eyed with admiration; for he knew what a comfort it was to have oneof these up-to-date contraptions swing alongside, and carry out all thenecessary operations of fitting a ship out, which in the old days had tobe done by hand, with the assistance of field hostlers.
"Anyhaow, we doant need a single thing to set us on aour way, which issome comfort," he remarked to his mate as they arrived at theirdestination.
While Jack was making all arrangements for their big Fokker to be takenout of the hangar, and brought in position for taking off, Perkcontinued to look eagerly around him, as usual deeply interested in allthat went on in connection with a popular and always growing airport, ofwhich Candler Field was a shining example.
"By gum! if there aint one o' them new-fangled air mail flags, paintedon the fuselege o' that Southern Air Fast Express ship gettin' ready topick off; an' say, aint she a beaut though--regulation wings in yellow,with the words 'U. S. Air Mail', an' the upper an' lower borders markedwith red an' blue painted lines. Gosh! I'd be some proud naow to behandlin' sech a nifty ship in the service I onct worked by; but no usekickin', what I'm adoin' these days is heaps more important fo' OleUncle Sam than jest acarry'n' his letter sacks. An' mebbe that shipmeans to head back jest where we come from, Los Angeles, an' San Diego,by way o' Dallas, Texas. Haow they keep askippin' all araoun' this widekentry, day an' night, like grasshoppers on a sunny perairie--the timeso' magic have shore come to us folks in the year nineteen thirty-one."
Other sights greeted his roving eyes as he held himself impatiently incheck waiting for Jack to give him the word to start. Both of them hadhurriedly changed their clothes, and were now garbed in their customaryworking dungarees, stained with innumerable marks of hard service, yetindispensable to those who followed their calling.
It certainly did not take long for their ship to be trundled out on tothe level field, and brought into position for taking off. There wasconsiderable of a gathering, considering that it was now so late in thenight; and Perk, giving a stab at the fact, came to the conclusion therewas something out of the common being, as he termed it, "pulledoff"--possibly the presence of that beautiful emblem of the air mailservice on the fuselage of the western bound mail and express mattercarrier had to do with the occasion--a sort of honorary christening, soto speak--he was content to let it go at that.
Jack was still talking with some one he seemed to know, some one whomust surely be a fellow pilot, for he was dressed in regulation dingyoveralls, and kept hovering near that fine multi-motored CurtissKingbird plane that he, Perk, understood belonged to the new fleet ofthe line to be operated in a short time between Atlanta and Miami,Florida, carrying passengers, the mail, and express between the twoairports.
Thus far there had been no sign of the ubiquitous newspaper man, andPerk continued to bolster up his hope this might continue to be the caseto the very moment of their departure. It would be a bit exasperatingshould the fellow suddenly burst upon them, jumping out of a taxi, andtackling Jack with a beastly shower of questions that were suited to theends he had in view of building up a fanciful story that must tickle thepalates of the numerous readers of his department on aviation in thepaper he served.
There, thank their lucky stars, was his companion giving the wished forcall for him to stand by, as everything was fixed for immediatedeparture. In less than three minutes they would be taking the air, andleaving lighted Candler Field behind them--once that happy event hadtaken place and they could snap their fingers derisively at any attempton the part of their determined annoyer to give them trouble.
"Huh! it's to be hoped the pesky guy doant take a notion to hire a ship,an' try to stick to aour tail, ashoutin' aout his crazy questions likehe spected us to done hole up, an' hand him his story on a plate! Kindergu--reckon as haow there aint much danger 'long them lines--it'd be awhole lot too hard fur him to manage. Okay, suh, right away!"
As Perk was supposed to be a pilot in the employ of Mr. RodmanWarrington, of course it was only right for him to be at the throttle ofthe ship when they took off. Accordingly he hastened to settle down inhis seat where he could grip the controls, and manipulate things in thedash along the field that would wind up in a swing upwards toward thestarry heavens.
Having given a last hasty inspection of his gadgets, and the numerousdials as arranged on the black dashboard before him, Perk calle
d out,the propeller started to roar and spin like lightning; and in that verylast second of time, as the ship commenced to leap forward, Perk caughta glimpse of the man whom they had believed left in the lurch--no otherthan Jimmy himself!